Questions about finishing out the helmet

[jakob2121]

I'm building my first ESB helmet, and I have a couple questions:


1) what's the best way to create the dent? The fiberglass bucket I have had an indention, but it was almost completely formless so I bondoed it in. Now I need to make a new one, and I'm just hoping someone has some tips to save time versus needle files.

2) Anybody ever used waterslide decals for the kill stripes? I was thinking of printing mine out, because i did a test with tk409's templates and couldn't get the edges crisp.

 

[Trooper TK409]

What are waterslide decals? You mean the kind we used to use on car models back in the 80's? That would be cool if someone made them!

 

[slave1pilot]

Trooper TK409 wrote:
What are waterslide decals? You mean the kind we used to use on car models back in the 80's? That would be cool if someone made them!

Chris,
I bought this to make new decals for my Herbie the love bug model. I have not used it yet, I'll let you know how it goes.
the kit comes with;
software cd
waterslide film
spray decal bonder

Hopefully I can make some bantha skulls & chest emblems for my armor.The decals should be really thin & not stick up too high.I'm concerned with the detail though.Guess we'll wait & see.

 

[MARROW SUN]

Buy yourself a cheap set of chisels to carve out a new dent.

 

[jakob2121]

Thanks for the replies. Printed up some of the decals tonight, I'll let everybody know how it goes once I put them on.

 

[cal196]

First I would build up some fiberglass inside the helmet then dremel out a new dent with the round head. I think they have a small fiberglass repair kit at wal-mart with the resin and all. you cant heat it up and bend it out and if you try cutting out a new dent deep enough you will either go threw the helmet or cause it to have severe weak spot.

Second, I havent thought of using waterslides and I wouldnt, not saying its not going to work but I just have two concerns.

1. They come off in the rain if your helmet happens to get wet.

2. They scrape off easily, and you cannot clear over them as you run the risk of them bubbling up.


Have you thought about red pinstriping stickers used on automobiles though? Thats what I used the non-glossy kind, Just got the right width and cut each one the same length, then used an exacto knive to cut missing pieces of the kill marks out and masked off the top and bottom of the helmet to keep them strait then after that, marked off the spaces in between on the tape.

I couldnt do the paper templete, no matter what I did the paper wont conform to the round helmet.